by Louise Stapleton-Frappell | Sep 3, 2026 | Dog Trainers, Pet Owners |
– Building, generalizing, and rebuilding strong behavior for the real world A dog learns to sit beautifully in the kitchen in response to a verbal cue. The behavior is fluent – the dog performs it accurately, smoothly, and readily. The guardian no longer reaches...
by Louise Stapleton-Frappell | Dec 27, 2025 | Dog Behavior, Dog Trainers, Pet Owners
The key distinction every trainer and dog guardian should understand! When we talk about dog training, we often use phrases such as force-free, positive, reward-based, or science-based. These terms are important, but they are also frequently misunderstood. One of the...
by Louise Stapleton-Frappell | Oct 5, 2025 | Pet Owners
🐶 The kind, science-backed training approach every pet parent should know! Positive reinforcement training (often referred to as reward-based training or force-free training) is a kind, science-backed way to teach your dog good behaviors by rewarding them for getting...
by Louise Stapleton-Frappell | Sep 21, 2022 | Dog Trainers, Pet Owners
– It’s our role to figure out what works best in different situations! During the Pet Care Professional Certification Workshop, we were asked a question that we often hear, “How can I train a dog that isn’t food motivated?” At The DogSmith, we also encounter...
by Niki Tudge | Jan 25, 2022 | Dog Trainers
Much of what we do in everyday life is all about choices. At any given moment we can work, or we can do something more pleasurable, let’s say take our dogs for a walk. We can choose to do some work or train our dogs. We could then go to the beach or go to the store....
